American Le Mans Series
The American Le Mans Series ( ALMS) was discharged in North America racing series for sports cars and was organized by the International Motor Sports Association ( IMSA ), with reference to the classic Le Mans race of the Automobile Club de l' Ouest, which also a partnership existed. From 2014, the series will go up in the United SportsCar Racing.
History
The championship was created in 1999 after organizer Don Panoz in the previous year had to contend with small turnout, and competing with the new United States Road Racing Championship from renegade team. Thus, the GT cars used to date have been added to the built for the 24- hour race at Le Mans prototypes. Similar to the IMSA GT racing calendar consisted in the first year of a mixture of 165 - minute race and longer championship races as the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. After the series was established in 1999 with the factory teams from Audi, BMW, Panoz and Corvette tried in 2000 to gain a foothold in Europe series organizer Don Panoz. With 1000 km Nürburgring and the 500 - km race at Silverstone were two championship races in Europe this year. In 2001, Don Panoz with the European Le Mans Series, the European sister series of the ALMS. In order to support the new series were some European championship runs both part of the American Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series. However, the attempt by Panoz, the new series was canceled after only one season and the ALMS drove in the aftermath exclusively in North America.
Apart from a few exemptions the Motorsport Club IMSA followed until 2007 the regulations of the French ACO. However, the Audi factory team in the highest category LMP1 prototype had with the disposal by the manufacturer Panoz 2003, only private teams as opponents. Therefore, the IMSA the previously used as a substructure Le Mans Prototype 2 decided to bring through adjustments to the performance level of LMP1. This is a commitment of Mazda and Acura could be secured next to Porsche in the subsequent period. Additionally, 2009 saw the highest GT GT1 class has been deprecated in favor of the brand GT Challenge Cup vehicles. Corvette Racing as the last remaining team moved to the GT2 category - in a row just called GT.
From 2010 to 2011 included selected race of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. 2012 was the season opener at Sebring also part of the World Sportscar Championship. In the course of the 2012 season, it was announced that the championship will merge to the 2014 season with the Rolex Sports Car Series for the United SportsCar Championship.
Vehicle classes
As with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the starting field was divided into several classes. The regulations were thereby adjusted several times over the years. Recently the following five classes were eligible to start:
- Le Mans Prototype 1: racing car with a minimum weight of 900 kg and more powerful racing engines.
- Le Mans Prototype 2: Race car with a minimum weight of 900 kg and standard -based racing engines.
- Le Mans Prototype Challenge: ORECA FLM unit chassis with motor unit of General Motors
- GT: production sports car with performance and optimization for a race
- GTC: production sports car the brand trophy series Porsche vehicles
Master
Others
The regulations corresponded largely to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but was adapted by the IMSA in some passages for the ALMS. The race distance was varied from 100 minutes in some city races up to 12 hours in the 12 Hours of Sebring. The distance most commonly used was 2:45 hours.
The season opener formed in each year, the 12 Hours of Sebring, while the highlight was the Petit Le Mans race in the fall.